Music App Volume Levels Significantly Quieter than Music Hub

I currently use the following Apps for finding and listening to new music on the go:

8tracks
Last.fm
Mixtapes
TuneIn Radio
Spotify

However, I like to play my music VERY loud every I go (whether it be driving around or at a party). These apps have significantly lower volume levels at full phone volume than the Music (Zune) hub offers.

Anyone else experiencing this? Is there a way to fix it? Why is it like this?

Yes... I have to turn my volume to Max when I'm using my car radios aux input to make it a reasonable level.
I've noticed if I play podcasts from internet explorer (via mp3 download) it is very noticeably quieter. Usually it's to quiet to even use. I think I had the same problem when listening through the wpcentral app. I don't use Slacker or Last.fm or any of the others you mentioned to compare.

Yeah it really is the volume of all downloaded apps that seems to be affected by this.

This is something that really needs to be fixed.

I think it's the Music+Videos app that is too loud. Try it with headphones on. Phone calls, Bing Navigate, just about everything, is much quieter than the Music+Videos app :( (even with the seperate call volume at 10/10).

I can tell you from a developer standpoint, that by default when you create an app the relative volume in the app is only set to 50%, you have to manually specify 100%. So I suspect, it is just lazyness and not enough people have complained to the app developers.

I think it's the Music+Videos app that is too loud. Try it with headphones on. Phone calls, Bing Navigate, just about everything, is much quieter than the Music+Videos app :( (even with the seperate call volume at 10/10).

I disagree. I use headphones all the time and even with music up all the way, text message notifications still startle me because of how loud they are.

I disagree. I use headphones all the time and even with music up all the way, text message notifications still startle me because of how loud they are.

This. When using it on my car stereo , I have to turn it up and notification sounds and speech notifications (when I connect via bluetooth) blare (this is using Zune, not apps). Actually, BT is worse than line out on that front. If I had to guess, the volume is limited either to protect your hearing or to keep the audio signal cleaner without distortion and clipping. The alerts and speech definitely sound a bit distorted by comparison. I think it is more a matter that alerts, etc are too loud relative to everything else and that the overall volume needs to be increased. I've noticed my Zune HD is similar in regards to volume level. It has to be turned up pretty much to max volume to get a passable amount of signal out of it. Sound quality is great though.

The best long term solution is probably for companies to include better amplifiers for the line out. That costs more money though so it probably won't happen.

The only correct way to do line out is to require the phone volume to be at max, then you control the volume at the amplifier. If you have to set it to, say, 22/30 when connected to a car and anything above that causes distortion then MS screwed up. Hopefully this is not the case.

The only correct way to do line out is to require the phone volume to be at max, then you control the volume at the amplifier. If you have to set it to, say, 22/30 when connected to a car and anything above that causes distortion then MS screwed up. Hopefully this is not the case.

This is the case (with the Music hub). I have to keep my phone at 18/30 while in my car, or turning the volume up will cause distortion and for my sub to bottom out. When using apps, I turn the volume to 30 and it's fine.

Personally, I didn't like my Focus' stock volume levels all around (but mainly how quiet my headphone jack was, headphones, 3.5 cable to my truck stereo, portable speakers, etc), so I went to xda and found the diagnostic codes for the phone's volume defaults. I wen't overboard the first time I adjusted them, almost needed new pants when I plugged the phone into my truck stereo and subs, but I dialed it in to a decent volume all around. I'm not technologically versed enough to verify this, but I did read somewhere that there was a separate diagnostic volume setting code that increased 3rd party app volume. But as mentioned above, I'm sure the app developers have the power to max their playback volume. It's possible, though, that the phone has x amount of room to increase app volume and the devs have y amount, whatever the ratio may be.

I'm kinda (ok, seriously) new here and I'm rather unversed on the rules of posting things like those diagnostic codes I mentioned. If someone could either clarify the policy for me, or just post the codes themselves to save the trouble, I'm sure it would help the OP out provided my method hasn't already been tried.